IPL 2021 | Plan was to keep the ball away from Rohit’s hitting zones, admits Amit Mishra
Amit Mishra, who picked up 4/24, has admitted that his plan was to keep the ball away from Rohit Sharma’s hitting zones, which eventually got him the Mumbai skipper’s wicket. Mishra also insisted that he was just trying to bowl good areas and throw the ball up in the air, in Chennai.
While Mumbai Indians had already played three games at the venue, Delhi Capitals made their first trip to Chennai in this season’s IPL, at Chepauk. After losing the toss, Delhi found themselves in a spot of bother, with Rohit Sharma racing to 44 in no time. However, Rishabh Pant turned to Amit Mishra’s experience, a move that paid dividends against the defending champions.
Amit Mishra, in his second spell, picked up four crucial wickets, including Rohit. The experienced leg-spinner admitted that his plan was to keep the ball away from Rohit’s hitting zones while taking the pace off. He also added that he tried to beat the MI skipper with flight, something he felt led to the right-hander’s downfall.
“I try to keep the ball away from his (Rohit) hitting zones and take the pace off, which will force him to go against his strengths. I also try to beat him with flight and I have been successful thus far, who knows what will happen in the future,” Mishra told Shaw in a video posted by IPLT20.
The leg-spinner who returned to the side, also added that his style of bowling is to flight the ball and insisted that he keeps things simple. However, he also reckoned that understanding the wicket played a huge role in his bowling on the night.
“Just tried to bowl good areas, just try to take wickets. Different bowlers have different style. My style is to bowl in the air. Don't want to change much. Sometimes the speed maybe. I try to understand the wicket and bowl like that,” Mishra said in the post-match presentation.
“Obviously I feel happy, that too against Mumbai, who have experience of playing on these wickets. I’m really happy that we beat them despite playing our first game in Chennai,” he added.
After his spell yesterday, Mishra is just seven wickets away from breaking Lasith Malinga’s all-time IPL record, with 164 wickets. The leg-spinner admitted that he has never focused on breaking Malinga’s record but insisted that his main focus is helping Delhi Capitals win games.
“I have never focused on breaking Lasith Malinga’s record of being the highest wicket-taker in IPL. It would feel really nice to break that record soon and the main focus is that Delhi Capitals should win. So that’s the goal for me.”